Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://nuclphys.sinp.msu.ru/conf/lpp14/Round%20Table%20Discussion/Stodolsky.pdf Дата изменения: Wed Sep 16 16:55:26 2009 Дата индексирования: Tue Oct 2 00:47:12 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: jupiter

The year 1609 and the year 2009


· What are we celebrating? · My favorite argument from Galileo · Can science still b e `dangerous'?


What are we celebrating? In 1609 Galileo did not `invent the telescop e'. But he improved the `spyglass' very much. Went from 3 X magnification to 8 X and to 20 X. With this new instrumentation he mo dern astronomy: observation of (mountains) on the mo on, phases of of Jupiter, sunsp ots, resolve planets nebulae into stars. (see Van Helden) b egan era of irregularities Venus, mo ons into discs, and


What we are celebrating is..greatly... improved instrumentation. In 2009 can we hop e for comparable results from our `improved instrument"­ the LHC­? Go o d luck CERN!


My favorite argument from Galileo Dialogue on Falling Bo dies: Friend: We heard you dropp ed a heavy and a light object from the Tower of Pisa and they reached the ground at the same time. Galileo: That was go o d. But I have a much b etter argument! Take a big stone and drop it. Now cut it in half. Each half is now lighter than the big stone, so according to traditional teaching, each half should fall slower. Place the two halves on top of each other. Since they now make a big stone again, it will fall faster.But each half is falling slower. Mayb e the top one is pushing down on the lower one? So turn them over so the top one is on the b ottom. Tradional teaching leads to a contradiction.


Conclusion: All b o dies fall at the same rate.


Has Galileo proven the Equivalence Priniciple by sheer reasoning? Eotvos exp eriment is not necessary!!?? Homework problem: Find the lo ophole in the argument (if there is one)


Can science still b e `dangerous' ? Galileo had certain `opinions' not in line with those of the `authorities' (= church)

Not all agreed...


Galileo was prosecuted by the Inquisition and was tried by the Pop e himself. He finally lived under house arrest. Could anything this imp ortant and exciting happ en to any of us? Probably not­last time in the develop ed world where scientisits were p olitically dangerous was in the Soviet Union­ and then not for their scientific ideas. Alas, science has b een incorp orated into the `establishment', and is no longer `explosive'.


E pur si muove

Moving..... but where?